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Another question for Ritterview: did you consider a compact double instead of a triple? I suppose it's that much harder to traverse, for example on Big Creek Road , so it's more important to invest in spinnable gears. That looks like a short-cage rear derailleur, however, which I'm surprised has the capacity for the triple front. It's also the first triple spider I've seen for the Lightning.

Ritter, how does the wifey handle not having hoods to ride in at the back??

and there was my other question I think you missed too...

The solution for stoker's are Cane Creek Ergo Stoker Levers. I had planned to put these on eventually, but didn't want to while it was being weighed. I hadn't known how much these weigh until now, they are 230 grams Also, they wouldn't match my Campy levers, so, I think I would have to source matching hardware depleted Campy levers.

Getting in the drops isn't done that often by stokers in general, and by Mrs. Ritterview in particular. I'll probably want to use cowhorn or time trial type handlebars, such as the the 205 gram Profile Cobra Wing Aero Base Bar, which can be lighter than drops, and avoids the need for dummy levers.

(I'll get to that other question presently or eventually.)

Edit: Okay, to your question, Fungus Foot:

Tinea Pedis wrote:

Is it hard to co-ordinate yourselves when you're both out of the saddle? I imagine you have to do it at the same time? And, as someone who has never used one, can the rear person simply kick back and freewheel??

Uh, Mrs. Ritterview gets out of the saddle in spin class, on the bike not so much. So, I'm not the expert on team dynamics. The timing chainrings and belt keep the stoker and captain in synch. So no stoker freecranking. This is unless you opt for the da Vinci Designs’ Independent Coasting System (ICS), which allows this, but is not weight weenie.

Calfee has made frames for DaVinci, and so you can purchase your Calfee as a fully-built bike from DaVinci. Calfee will sell you a frame. That's it. No OEM, you'll have to purchase all the components retail.

Until WW has a tandem section, the source of all knowledge on tandems is the Bike Forum Tandem Cycling subforum. Not much WW material there, as is evidenced by the reports on the What does your tandem weigh? thread.

Found some pics of the bike from Interbike. Its been turned to the show the left side, with the Gates drive and Lightning's carbon spyder.

The carbon spyder looks trick, and saves a few grams, but I'll probably have to switch out to aluminum because they have some more strength, needed especially for the stoker crank, which transmits the torque from both captain and stoker.

A pic of the Edge booth, which happens to have the tandem in it. Looks like it was placed on the outside on the walkway (this probably a makeshift arrangement, as the tandem was too long to fit on the stands).

Last edited by Ritterview on Fri Sep 25, 2009 9:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

A few things: (1) I didn't realize Super Record 11 front shifter ran with a triple crankset. (2) The frame seems a bit heavy for a Dragonfly. The Ruegamer is listed 2.0 to 2.5 kg.Ruegamer is down, so isn't an option right now.

But Calfee says "with a fame weight of less than 6 pounds, the Dragonfly Tandem weighs in as the world's lightest tandem!" (6 lbm = 2721 g).

added: I'm not able to view the photos anymore. I need my bike porn fix . I believe the problem is flickr uses temporary URLs.... imageshack.us is better. For flickr, link to the HTML page associated with the image.

Hi, I got to see the tandem first hand and it looked great! Good job and I hope you have fun smoking all the other singles you ride with!

So to respond to the "worlds lightest" title, well it seems that just about every manufacturer and their brother lay claim to this in just about every category you can think of... We just like to let the facts speak for us, like our 1600g Überlight tandem frame than not only has won 6 National titles but also has couplers on it and a special track section that can be swapped out to race it on the velodrome Or the 16lb complete tandem we had at Interbike two years ago...

Ok, I'm done hijacking the thread, proceed with the drooling over the cool bike boys!

I have absolutely no knowledge of the dynamics of tandem riding, but wouldn't having the shifters and the steering up the front and the proper cranks up the back be a bit like that Top Gear episode where they split the steering and the gears in the two storey cars? I.E. A complete catastrophe unless your uber teamworkers or, as was the case on Top Gear, German?

I would definitely get that Avid in the back. The extra power is one reason, but mainly just to take the heat capacity away from the carbon rims. A friend of ours just split (melted) a Reynolds carbon rim going down Welch Creek.

PS - The 11-speed shifter should work fine with the triple. The FD on the other hand... You will need to get a Comp triple or a NOS Record triple for it to work well. There is a couple less clicks on the 09 lever, but you only need 6 clicks to operate the triple with trimming.

Another question for Ritterview: did you consider a compact double instead of a triple? I suppose it's that much harder to traverse, for example on Big Creek Road , so it's more important to invest in spinnable gears. That looks like a short-cage rear derailleur, however, which I'm surprised has the capacity for the triple front. It's also the first triple spider I've seen for the Lightning.

You definitely want spinnable gears.

We tend to do more seated, higher RPM climbing when riding tandem. With all the weight of two riders, small undulations that go relatively unnoticed while riding solo, can really effect the tandem. Rather than shifting every 5-seconds just keeping the cruising rpm higher seems to help. We like to climb at 75+ rpm or so, we have a good rhythm there. At that cadence, if the speed dips below 6 mph, you are going to need smaller than a 34x28.

Also, we love the 53x11 for long shallow descents. Dan, think 84W going from Skyline toward the coast. We can hammer the 53x11, and pedal through every turn but one or two. Another one that comes to mind is Skyline NB from Alpine to OLH, the 53x11 always comes in handy there.

I wish I could have put some of the parts you did on yours, but money is money and I did not get any deals. Plus I wanted to keep my marriage intact.

So looking over your parts list nearly every component you chose was lighter than what we used on our Rue. But we are a heavier team than you by about 50 pounds. You are probably correct that we could get the weight down to 22 -23 pounds using the same parts list and swapping out tubulars (which we already use on our tandem).

It is cool to see two light weight tandems amid all these single bikes, and these two can hold their own against many production single bikes with regard to weight.

I would love to hear a ride report when its all done and on the road.

Oh BTW, Rue is not out of business just took a bit to re-organize, and you see she also posted here in this thread.

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